ZODIAC’s Fork

A little sneak peak at HorrorScope. It is not enough to finally expose the identity of The Zodiac Killer. We must get into his mind as he worked out his crime spree. Without this it is impossible to try and unravel his identity and glimpse, at the very least, his motive.

What I present here helps underscore the case that The ZODIAC was not excessively familiar with Vallejo. Added to other facts which will come forward in HorrorScope, we will see how the sequence of events and clues reveal that ZODIAC came from afar to an area of which he had a general knowledge.

This is how I was able to seriously pursue my suspect as coming from as far as Sacramento. The map below accentuates the fork in Highway 80, the main highway into San Francisco’s Bay Area from Sacramento. The southern fork becomes Highway 680. The first off ramp of either highway before one gets to the northeast Bay Area towns of Vallejo and Benicia, where ZODIAC began, are marked by the arrows. The off ramp at Highway 80 is Columbus Parkway. The off ramp at 680 is Lake Herman Road. In essence, the two create a huge U-turn coming from Sacramento.

Without even touching Vallejo or Benicia, someone could come from Sacramento in an hour, even less, take one off ramp and then drive along an isolated country road and take the other back. He need only know that Columbus Parkway and Lake Herman Road join in the center and that at each terminal they are at a major highway.

Even at this altitude Lake Herman Road and Columbus Parkway are evident as the major and only backroads.

ZODIAC began here. He struck at the turnout on Lake Herman Road in December 1968 and then returned to Blue Rock Springs Park on Columbus Parkway in July 1969. Blue Rock Springs Park is basically the only major reason general traffic would travel Columbus Parkway.

After ZODIAC’s July 4 attack, he drives into Vallejo and calls from a phone booth at Tuolomne and Spring. It is not hard to see how he could quickly get to the location, call, and merely head back to Highway 80. He had crossed it on the way in to Vallejo from Columbus Parkway. An hour or less away and he is home.

In calling the police dispatcher he gave terrible directions to Blue Rock Springs Park and didn’t even seem to know its name. Nothing indicated ZODIAC was overly familiar with Vallejo.

What first brought him to the back roads? The first time he had a .22 caliber. The second time a 9 mm.

He strikes at Lake Berryessa in September 1969. After that he drives to Napa and calls the police, not the sheriffs. Why would driving to Napa indicate he is returning to Vallejo? He could easily take Highway 12 to Highway 80. If he lived in Sacramento, why would he drive from Lake Berryessa to Winters and make the call? It would be a dead giveaway the dragnet would have to spread eastward.

There is a pattern here which shows he was not coming from the Bay Area but rather coming to it and only tickling its fringes in the northeast section. And he knew it was necessary to do so.

* * *

For 25 years Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.